Sterilization Station: A Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast
Welcome to "Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast, the podcast dedicated to elevating the field of sterile processing and surgical services! In an industry where precision and care intersect, we believe that knowledge is power. Our mission is to empower, encourage, and motivate every professional engaged in the transformative world of healthcare.
Join us each week as we delve into enlightening discussions that shine a light on best practices, emerging innovations, and the critical role sterile processing plays in patient safety. Whether you're a seasoned expert or just starting your journey, our panels and expert guests will provide invaluable insights through engaging conversations and real-world stories.
From the nuances of instrument handling to the latest in sterilization techniques, we cover it all. Expect thought-provoking interviews, educational segments, and motivating content designed to inspire you to elevate your craft. Together, let’s foster a community that champions excellence in surgical services and celebrates the unsung heroes of healthcare.
Tune in to where expertise meets passion, and every episode empowers you to make a difference in the operating room and beyond.
Sterilization Station: A Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast
Skills with Jill: Parent Hacks with Infection Preventionist Jill Holdsworth
Jill Holdsworth, a certified infection preventionist with 15 years of experience, shares practical advice for parents on managing household cleaning and disinfection during childhood illnesses while maintaining a balanced approach to germ exposure.
• Doorknobs and light switches are high-priority cleaning targets during illness outbreaks
• Heat from the dryer is typically sufficient for sanitizing bedding without special additives
• Steam cleaning is recommended for baby bottles and pacifiers to prevent biofilm buildup
• Children should be truly fever-free for 24 hours without medication before returning to school
• Use appropriate brushes for cleaning sippy cups and water bottles, especially the straws
• Teaching children proper hand hygiene and cough etiquette helps prevent illness spread
• Change toothbrushes after strep throat or significant illness
• Supervise young children at water parks and discourage swallowing pool water
• Exposure to everyday germs helps children develop stronger immune systems
• Balance protection with allowing natural immune system development through normal play
Be sure to check out all the great learning opportunities from Sterilization Station, and stay tuned for more episodes in the Skills with Jill mini-series.
Hi, welcome to the Skills with Jill mini-series, a series that will explore various skills through sterile processing, quality accreditation and endoscopes. I appreciate Bill and the Sterilization Station for allowing me to bring this series to you. Check out all the great things arriving daily from Sterilization Station. Today, I'm excited to sit down with Jill Holdsworth, recording on-site from APEC 2025 conference. I'm going to have you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, as you do so many things for IP and SPD partnerships and mentoring.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, I'm Jill Holdsworth. I've been an IP for over 15 years now, which makes me feel super old, but we are here in Phoenix, arizona, at the APIC 2025 conference, and I couldn't be more excited to be on this podcast and recording here live with my friend Jill, and we are going to be talking about some really cool stuff today. But a little bit more about me. I am a mom of two boys. My boys are 10 and 12, and we live in Atlanta, georgia, and I am a certified IP. I'm also certified in sterile processing and I got my CHL as well last year, so I love sterile processing as much as I love infection prevention, and so those are my two loves.
Speaker 1:We are so glad that you love all the things and bring sterile processing and IP to the world and help us collaborate more together. I'm so excited to talk about this today, like parent hacks from the IP, because this can really in my own home when I think about norovirus and hand, foot and mouth, because I'm also a mom of two boys, so Jill and I Jill squared have a lot in common. I can really go down the rabbit hole, so I'm super excited to bring this today. So let's start out talking about cleaning and disinfection at home. When we think about the norovirus, like when I think about that, I can go down the rabbit hole on sheets, blankets, the high touch surfaces, toilets. How often? When should we be cleaning? What does disinfection look like in the home? Because obviously it's not like in the hospital, yeah, and I would say it's not like in the hospital.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I I would say it's not even just thinking norovirus, I think diarrhea and you have boys or kids or anybody at home.
Speaker 2:Really, if you hear diarrhea or or you smell something funny, yeah, all the people the mom, the parents if you think someone in your house has an upset stomach, for whatever the reason, you just pull out the bleach wipes and you don't even have to take care what you think that they have, because that's when you kind of go into mom germ pro mode because you don't want that spreading everywhere. I worry about the doorknobs in those situations the most because I don't know about anyone listening that has kids, especially boys. I feel like they don't wash their hands.
Speaker 1:They never wash their hands, never the food, the things, the bathrooms.
Speaker 2:My kids even tell me well, sometimes I run them underwater and I'm like, oh my god, you have failed me as an eyepiece child. So you have to just think about all the things that they just touched on their way out. The bathroom it's the doorknobs are really what make me worry the most.
Speaker 1:Okay, so doorknobs and light switches.
Speaker 2:Okay, light switches, you don't think about the things. If you go through your normal day at home and think what are all the things that I touched? You don't even realize the light switches.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what about the sheets for me Like post sickness, diarrhea, throw up, puke, whatever you want to call it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the sheets. I mean, especially if it's something like like diarrhea or throw up, there could be splatters of it on the sheets and blankets. So yeah, and if your kids are anything like mine, they have about 50 blankets on their bed and stuffed animals. Yes, on the sheets and blankets.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and if your kids are anything like mine, they have about 50 blankets on their bed and stuffed animals.
Speaker 2:Yes, all the stuffed animals, you have to think of all of those things that could potentially be contaminated, and that means a lot of laundry for you, moms and dads.
Speaker 1:Well, the laundry. Should I be adding the color safe bleach? Should I be thinking about things like that?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. The heat from the dryer is usually good enough. When there's something kind of gnarly going on in our house, whether it's just really dirty baseball outfits or uniforms Sorry outfits, it wasn't cool or sickness, I do add a big scoop of OxyClean sometimes, but that's not necessary. That's just me, but the heat from the dryer is usually good enough.
Speaker 1:Perfect, that's just me, but the heat from the dryer is usually good enough. Perfect, that helps me to just not have endless daily every episode of whatever we have going on cleaning and then maybe it's the same. But if we think about other things like hand, foot and mouth, would it be similar? Can we treat all of these as we go through a little list here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think hand and mouth is pretty similar. It's so hard because a lot of kids are getting this at daycares. By the time they have it, they're already at home and so you just have to. Sometimes you just have to keep changing the sheets and everything over and over again and keeping them out of common areas, sometimes in your homes, but, depending on how old your kid is, sometimes you can quarantine them, but if they're babies you can't. So, yeah, the cleaning is really important. And toys with hand, foot and mouth the toys are going to be really important because they're putting them in their mouth, they're touching them, it's all over the place. So washing the toys is going to be the big one with some of these, depending on the age of your kid.
Speaker 1:You're right. And what could we use to? If some can go in the dishwasher? Obviously that would be the best. What could we use for a wipe that then, if they're going to put that in their mouth?
Speaker 2:I think about that you know I used to soak toys at one of those like storage bins and just fill it with some water and dish soap or something and soak them that way. But I love the dishwasher. That's always a great option and it has some heat with it. You have to be careful that they won't melt, because I've definitely done that with some things too.
Speaker 1:When we think a little bit about that obviously I've had in my friend circle people who have as adults that gotten the hand, foot and mouth is there anything as parents that we can do to prevent other kids, or maybe ourselves, from getting it well?
Speaker 2:I think one of the biggest life lessons I think, as parents, we have to pay attention to is to keep your kids away from other kids when they're sick, and that drives me nuts when I see sick kids around.
Speaker 2:Lots of other kids are still going to the playground when they're sick, and that drives me nuts when I see sick kids around. Lots of other kids are still going to the playground when they have anything, not just hand, foot and mouth, but when they have any illness. You need to keep them out of school, out of daycare, and you yourself, as a parent, needs to stay out of work, out of whatever. Don't take them to public places. That's the best way that we can prevent from spreading it, and as parents, it's hard if you have multiple kids. One thing that my husband and I have done is we will quarantine one of us when we're sick and one of us lives in the basement until we're not contagious anymore. Obviously, that's ideal if you can do that. If you don't have a basement or you can quarantine in like a separate bedroom or something, then that's what I would always recommend.
Speaker 1:That's a really good idea. So let's also talk about roseola and fifths disease. They're kind of I'm kind of talking about more of the kids for any parents out there some of our listeners. These are really a lot of the childhood illnesses that you will go through from is it birth? To maybe eight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and for some of these infections you need to understand the how are they transmitted.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about how snotty kids are and these that are transmitted by sneezing, coughing saliva, and that's going to be probably the most of the things that are transmitted by kids and that's going to be really difficult when they're in daycare or when they're in school or things that can even be passed on to the parents, because I can't tell you how many times my kids sneeze right in my mouth and you just know in a couple days you're you're gonna get sick. So the best thing that you can do for your kids is help them wash their hands. My kids learned how to stand out of sync on a little stool and wash their hands at a very early age. They also did it in daycare. Every day, as soon as they got there, they washed hands. So the best thing you can do as parents is, as soon as they are old enough, they need to be washing their hands at a sink, but you will have to help them. So that's on us as parents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good point. I think some of the easiest things like when we talk about being moms of boys I just wash them. Well, did you actually use soap?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like brushing your teeth. Did you actually brush them or did you?
Speaker 1:just like do the and spit. So let's talk about when can the kids go back to daycare or school after these viruses. I know this was kind of a thing when COVID happened and there was all these different schools and daycares trying to figure out the right plans. But when we're thinking of just generalized childhood illnesses, like we're talking about, when would be a good rule of thumb for us as parents.
Speaker 2:It's a hard one, because as parents we can't just take off work all the time, and so for those of us that work, you kind of want to go ahead and send them back as soon as you can. But when is safe? Kids are always snotty and coughing for some reason, so that's kind of hard too, because you don't want to have to say, well, when they don't have any symptoms at all, when everything is gone. So you want to make sure there's significant improvement of symptoms and like, if they are literally still have snot running down their face and they have a hacking, creepy cough, that's not the time to send them back to daycare or school.
Speaker 2:if they've still got diarrhea, don't send them to school so we have to use a little bit of common sense in our parent brains to know when to send them back to school, because that's where kids are getting strep all the time and when they're picking up. Colds are even a big bummer these days because kids are staying home from school. So, just making sure that our kids know how to cover their cough, how to wash their hands, and send them to school with hand gel Because our kids could be the ones doing all the things right, which they're probably never doing all the things right. Do our kids know that they need to wash their hands? Do they need to know that they should be using hand gel? Do they know how to cover their cough correctly? Because sometimes it's the other kids and they're going to keep spreading things around and we can't do anything about that. But we can at least teach our kids to do the right thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, thinking about how we can teach our kids to do the right thing and then maybe they can pass it on. Do you think, in all these that we're talking about, will you have a fever and then the fever will go away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know. I know that most schools will say you have to be fever free for 24 hours without any any medicine. That's a pretty good marker of when you can send your kid back to school. I also know a lot of people just give their kid Motrin and send them to school. There's a reason that guidance is in place. It's not you can't have a fever if it came down with some Motrin, like.
Speaker 1:that's not the rule, four hours later they'll come back. Then they come home anyways, or?
Speaker 2:you have to stay out a day if you threw up at school, that's because we want to make sure that whatever bug you had is gone, because you will spread it to the other kids, because the kids are touching everything. The kids are, you know, all over each other. The kids can't keep their hands to themselves. Continues through middle school. So don't think that it's just elementary school. So that is something that you really have to understand. The fever, the throwing up. Those rules are in place for a reason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about bottle sterilization versus hand washing or dishwasher. So I know a lot of us right in sterile processing. We, you know, brush under the water line and take everything apart. When we have all the little sippy cups and the bottles, and then we have the bottles that have all of the little parts, how do we make sure that we're preventing thrush or other things that can maybe build up or not be killed time over time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will tell you at least what I did. That's not to say this is what everybody has to do, but I feel like maybe this is my IP showing when I breastfed, every time I used something it was steamed. And there are steam things out there that you do it in the microwave but you put sterile water in the bottom and then you steam it. So everything got steamed every single time with just juice bottles, water cups, whatever they went through the dishwasher, but I never just hand washed and used it again. Not that I'm saying anything's wrong with that, but it probably made everything a little bit cleaner. It didn't let things build up and I can't say that I do that now for my water bottles, but I do make sure that when I had babies everything was perfectly steamed or washed in the washing machine.
Speaker 1:And it's really nice and convenient now because when you were talking about adding water, they have plug-in machines now that will sterilize for you, or they make the nice little bags for on-the-go travel.
Speaker 2:Of course, it's easier now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot easier in 2025. So, as we talk about, is there a process for pacifier cleaning? I know that there can be biofilm that grows on that.
Speaker 2:I personally did the same thing for pacifiers. I steamed them all the time because you know those kids are throwing them and doing all sorts of weird things with the pacifiers. So I did the same thing where they were always being steamed, probably more than they needed to be, but not to say that you have to do that. Yeah, just like in sterile processing, you manually clean it and then you steam it and honestly I think that was the best thing, because that is always in that kid's mouth, okay so I'm gonna go out on a limb and go real life.
Speaker 1:so if the pacifier were out in public and the pacifier hits the ground, if we, you know, take it in the bathroom, will that get off? Or do we just pocket that one and always bring the second I usually had?
Speaker 2:spares Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, it's just real life Just knowing tap water.
Speaker 2:I would never want to use tap water to clean off my kids' pests.
Speaker 1:Okay, especially at the Target.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, or the gas station, yeah who knows where we're at. The ball field.
Speaker 1:This is why we're talking to Jill the IP about all the parent things that maybe we need to know when we're coming from the world of SPD, or things like that. I really this is very Interesting and I really enjoy this, as we talk about sippy cups and straw cups so we talked a little bit about that, but do we need to run the brush that comes with it? All the things that we also think about when we're doing cleaning in the sterile processing. It makes me think about all the straw cups that even our boys are out there at their ages.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the straw brushes are a great idea. I don't know how many people actually use them. Think about how nasty those straws probably get. I mean, it's just like sterile processing. Yeah, I, and I would use the ones that come with them. I mean, just like sterile processing, you need the right size brush, the right length. So yeah, I would. I would use the brushes um and and clean them often because, again, who knows what backwash is going into these boys water bottles, sippy cups, whatever? I know that's gross, but boy moms, it's not gross.
Speaker 1:To me it's life, it is real life. And then how do we prevent whether it's the organisms that then are growing on their teeth?
Speaker 2:right, because they're not brushing their teeth. Good enough either. Moms, I hate to tell you that we're gonna help you help yourself.
Speaker 1:How often with the older kids should we be cleaning the water bottles? Obviously they're at back-to-back games. They have things, life happens. I understand that it may not be every day, but if we are older, or even for ourselves, I don't wash mine every day. I don't either.
Speaker 2:Real world we treat certain ones differently. So if it's the water bottle that they take to the baseball games over the weekend, we wash those between games. I don't even know why we do it that way, but I will tell you I see all the other kids drinking after everybody else. So I'm kind of glad we do that and they do this thing called waterfall, where you just hold it up and squirt it into other people's mouths. But let me tell you that's not always not touching somebody else's mouth but like their regular water bottles it's probably weekly at best. But hopefully that kind of stays in the side of their book bag and where and nobody else was drinking out of it doesn't go rolling around in the mud, but hopefully that's okay. When I think about strep, I think about drinking after people and I think about not changing your toothbrush, and, and so that's one thing that I'm really strong about is if they have even the littlest bit of a cold, especially if they have strep, you need to change the toothbrush.
Speaker 1:Can you put the toothbrush in the dishwasher or?
Speaker 2:just throw it away and get a new one? I wouldn't. It's not a bad idea to change your toothbrush anyways on a regular basis. So when you have a cold, just go ahead and throw it out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, biofilms will, obviously. They're on our teeth, they're all in the toothbrush all the things how to prevent illness at the water park. So we have E coli Giardia, is it?
Speaker 2:Cryptosporidium. Yes, Now, this is hard because you have kids who poop in the pool or have pooped in their diapers, because you have kids who poop in the pool or have pooped in their diapers and there's all sorts of things going on in the pool. It's really important to make sure that your kids know not to swallow the pool water, which of course they're going to anyways, because they just they don't understand. If you're going on vacation, I try to get my kids to take a super vitamin and a probiotic before we go on a vacation where they're going to be swimming a lot.
Speaker 2:I know that probably sounds overkill, but I just want their immune systems to be as good as possible, I guess, to fight off anything. But these kinds of things are really hard the water park or pool organisms. But hopefully you have a healthy immune system with your kids and they won't get something immediately from somebody pooping in the pool or keep going back to that. But it happens and of course, if they I've seen people or I've seen like places, like resorts, where there's poop in the pool and somebody doesn't take care of it immediately and that drives me crazy. And so make sure also that you report something suspicious if you see it laying on the bottom of the pool, because the whole pool needs drained and cleaned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was gonna ask do the processes at the resorts and these water parks, do they partner with an IP? Do they reach out? Is there any oversight that maybe the state or anybody does.
Speaker 2:No, it's usually like a health department type of partnership, not an IP.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, so maybe there's an opportunity there. Yeah, yeah, sure. Anything else you want to share with the listeners today?
Speaker 2:this has been really fun and I've just enjoyed learning for myself yeah, you know I I would say don't be afraid of like your kids going out and getting dirty. When they're little, you know, people used to say oh my god, do you not like let your kids get dirty? Do you not let them play outside? I'm like, no, like they eat dirt. You know a healthy fistful of dirt every now and then is good for their immune system, like you know.
Speaker 2:Whatever you need to be outside and exposing themselves to things in the environment, they need to go to daycare because it does end up making their immune system healthier. It just feels, as parents, it feels very daunting when your kid gets a cold every two weeks when they're in daycare. But all of these things are very natural. They're good for our kids and eventually it's going to just make their body stronger. It's a very normal part of life and even though I'm an IP and I say all these things, I steamed their bottles. They definitely get their share of exposure to germs and bacteria on a daily basis, but that's why we have to be their best advocate as their parents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and let them live their best lives right. Well, thank you so much. This has really been fun. Thanks for joining me today on the Skills with Jill miniseries. I look forward to bringing you all the next episodes. Thank you to Bill and the sterilization for the support with this min-series and be sure to check out all the other learning opportunities from Sterilization Station. Thank you.
